the charge of his education. At thirteen he was placad in the gymnasium of Scliulpforte, and whik' tliere he imbibed (_from reading Lessing) a spirit of free inquiry whicli animated his whole intellectual life. At eighteen he entered the University of Jena as a student of theolog}', and while there he seems to have adopted the philusopli}' and theology of Spinoza. But the sense of " personality" soon lifted him out of that ab3'ss. The deatli of baron Miltetz threw lam on his own resources, and privation added strength to his character. For a while he was tutor in a family at Zuricli, and in 1790 he went to Leipzig, where he suf- fered greatly from poverty. "I liave nothing," he writes, "excepting courage left." Kant's Kritik der reinen Veniunft (the Criticism of Pure Reafoii) wrought a revolution in his mode ofthinking, and freed iiit, mind entirely from the remains of Determinism. '• I now heartily believe in the freedom of man, and am well convinced that it is only on this supposition that duty, virtue, and moralit}' is so much as possible. ... It is now evident to me that the doctrine of the necessity of all human actions is the source of a great part of the immorality of the so-called higher classes" [^Letter to Achelis, 1790). In 1791 he went to Warsaw to till a place as private tutor, but soon threw it up in disgust, and on his yvay home stopped at Konigsberg to visit Kant (June, 1791). Not finding at first a vevy cordial reception, he wrote, between July 13 and Aug. 18, his Kri.ik alter Ojenbarung (Criticism of all possible Rev- elation), and laid it before Kant, as an introduction of ''his mind" to that philosopher. Kant was, indeed, con- ciliated ; but 3'et, when Fichte soon after asked for a small loan to help him forward, Kant refused. The book appeared in the spring of 1792, and attracted universal attention. It was ever3^where ascribed to Kant, who was compelled to name Fichte as the au- thor, in order to disclaim it completely for himself. The work seeks to determine the necessarj' conditions under which revelation must be given by God to man, and to lay down the criteria by which everj^ professed revelation must be tested. In October, 1792, Fichte was married, and took up his abode with his father-in- law (Rahn) at Zurich, where he spent several months. Here he published a work on the French Revolution (1793, 2 vols.), in which he advocated the modei'n principle that no political constitution can be un- changeable ; and that the best constitution is that which carries in itself the principle of progress, and provides a method for its own change and improve- ment. He was charged with Jacobinism and democ- racy on account of this work. In 1791 he became pro- fessor of philosopliy at Jena, as successor of Reinhold. His lectures awakened great enthusiasm among the students. Part of them were published under the title Die Bestimmung des O'elehrten (transl. by W. Smith, T/ie Vocation of the Scholar, London, 1847, i2mo). In 1795 he publislied Wissenschafiskhre (Doctrine of Knowl- edge), and in 1798 his Sittenlchre (Doctrine of Ethics). The freedom and novelty of the doctrines taught in these lectures, together with the fact that he delivered many of them on Sunday (see below), brought upon him a charge of atheism, which he vigorously repelled in his Appellation g:'gen die. Anklage des Atheismus. Nev- ertheless, he was coni{)elled to resign his chair in 1799. He went to Berlin and delivered private lectures, which were very popular ; and in 1800 he published his Bestimmung des Menschen (transl. by ]Mrs. Sinnett un- der the title The Destination of Man, Lond. 184G, 12mo). In 1805 he held the chair of philosophy at Erlangen for a few months. Between 1805 and 1807 he pub- lished lectures, Ueber das Wesen des Gekhrten (transl. by W. Smith under the title Th' Nature of the Scholar and its Manfestations, Lond. 185 1, 12mo) ; lectures de- livered at Beidin on Grundzi'ige d's gegenwiirtigen Zeit- alters (transl. by W. Smith, The Characteristics of the present Age, London, 1847, 12mo) ; and Anweisung zum seligen Le'jen, oder die Religionslehre, the most impor-
tant of his later writings, as giving what he considered to be the ethical and religious results of his philosophy (translated b}" W. Smith, The Way tuiuards the blessed Lfe, or the Doctrine of Religion, London, 1849, 12mo). Returning to Berlin in 1807, he published Jieden an die Deutsche Nation (Addresses to the German People), which awakened great political enthusiasm. On the restoration of peace he was called by the king to aid in reorganizing the University of Berlin, and in 1810 he was made rector of the universit}', which then in- cluded among its faculty Schleiermacher, Neander, De Wette, Von Humboldt, and other brilliant names. During the subjection of Germany to Napoleon, much of Fichte's time and thoughts were given to politics; his patriotism was pure, fervent, and self-sacrificing. Af- ter the great battles of 1813, the hospitals were filled with wounded men, and his wife was an assiduous and devoted nurse. She was seized with t3'plioid fever early in 1814, and her husl)and imbibed the infection from her ; she recovered, but he died, Jan. 27, 1814. His son, Immanuel Hermann (born in 1797), inherited his father's ayjtitudes to a certain extent, has edited his works, and has also vindicated him from the charge of atheism and irreligion. Besides the works of J. G. Fichte already mentioned, we name Grundltige des Na- tur-Rechts (Jena, 17G7-9, 2 parts) : — Die Thatsachen des Bewusstseyns (Stuttgard, 1817). '1 he following were edited by his son after his death : Nachgelassene Werke (Bonn, 1834, 3 vols.) : — ReUgions-philosophische Schrif- ten (Berlin, 1847): — Populdrphilos. Schriften (Berlin, 1807, 7 vols.): — Brief Loechsel niit Sch-lling (Stuttgard, 185G): — /. G. Fichte's Siimmtliche Wei'ke (Berlin, 1845 sq. 8 vols.).